How come this worked?
Well, more interesting is how come this sustained. Modelo is now the number one beer in America, and Bud Light's sales have not returned to anywhere near their previous level. Meanwhile, every boycott on the left, proposed or actualized, never sustains.
Like Facebook. Remember when you were supposed to delete that? And Amazon?
Now in truth, there are no alternatives to those, not viable ones. So it's not exactly apples to apples. Then again it's very difficult to get beer drinkers to switch brands. Their preferred brand is part of their identity.
But not as strong as their allegiance to the Republican party.
I read a tweet yesterday that people have already forgotten the sexual assault verdict in the E. Jean Carroll trial, and that just happened in May. That's testimony to how fast the world moves these days. If the bad behavior of an ex-President is forgotten, what else is forgotten? Nearly everything. So, if you're resting on your laurels, on what you've done, you may remember, but most others do not, there's just too much in the channel. Which is why...
You should never fight back. You just amplify the situation. If someone attacks you on social media, stay silent. Unless it's truly heinous behavior and you are innocent. If you don't respond chances are the story will fade away. And you must know, there's a plethora of people out there whose only goal is to get you to react, unlike you they've got nothing to lose. Beware of these trolls, they exist in every vertical and if you've got any status at all, they play. Also, before you pull your hair trigger, look at their follower count. Especially on Twitter, er, X. The people attacking you most viciously frequently have no followers at all! The accounts were just set up to hassle you. Or they have very few. What they write has no traction until you respond.
However, that's different from the Bud Light situation.
It turns out the right, the Republicans, the Trumpers, are just more dedicated than the Democrats, much more passionate. And this pays dividends. The right plays offense and the left plays defense. The right is cooking up grievances and causes of action 24/7, the left is somnambulant and surprised when the right attacks it. Who knows how good Kamala Harris actually is, but one thing is for sure, she's been defined negatively by the right, and she should not be on the 2024 ticket. These are the same people who negatively defined Hillary Clinton. How many times do you have to see this movie to get it? Well, the DNC almost never gets it.
But there's so much we could boycott on the left that we never do. We can start with MyPillow. But even when states enact heinous legislation... Tours reroute once, movie companies pull production once, and then they go right back to the usual behavior. They feel that they're out there alone, that no one is supporting them. On the right there's constant cheerleading, on the left there's crickets.
And the media is complicit, on the left as well as the right. It's a story, that everyone can react to. No different from all the ink about Taylor Swift and the Korean boy/girl groups. You'd think there is no other act on the road. When in truth there are multiple acts selling out stadiums, never mind arenas, but it's not quite as sexy or controversial, so it goes unreported.
There are more people on the left than the right. If they came together for the cause... But they don't. They're always told to hold back, to settle it at the ballot box. This is a piss-poor way of motivating your constituents. People want to do something, give them ammunition.
Maybe start with one right wing product a month. Or just one product. Get everybody to stop using it and put out constant press releases, have MSNBC continue to hammer the story. It's not a difficult path, the right has already established it. But instead we get wimps, our supposed leaders, like Schumer, who is afraid to raise his voice and keeps telling us his hands are tied, that he doesn't have the votes. Well, this does not stop the right. Look at the Freedom Caucus in the House, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who's been excised. They don't care about the vote, they don't lay down their arms, they agitate, and even spew falsehoods, to bond their constituents to them. They're doing something, even though in truth their agenda is to do nothing. But if we want someone to root for on the left? The only person I can think of is Newsom. Maybe Whitmer. Everybody else seems to be a professional, part of the problem, or has been neutered, like AOC.
How come the left can't be organized?
Oh, don't tell me about phone banks and canvassing. That doesn't excite people. They want to be part of something. Give them something to do. They'll do it, but the left just rests on its laurels, which aren't looking so good.
And I don't need another musician to come out against the right wing, I need another musician to do something, to lead as opposed to react. Motivate their fans.
I was out last night and an agent asked me what we can do, someone who put together a tour last time around to get out the vote. But the vote is a year and a half away. We're not going to do anything until then? Just let Joe and Kamala sit at home, waiting for the election? Hell, there aren't even debates on the left, there's no theater. It'd be like asking people to believe in the movie business with no flicks at the multiplex. Baseball went on strike and canceled games and it took years for attendance to recover. But the Democrats are sitting on the sidelines. And baseball realized it was losing its fans and this year modernized, to make the game faster and more palatable.
We need an equal shake-up on the left.
Go on TikTok. The Trumpers are radicalized, they're emotionally invested. Talk to someone about Biden... At best you'll get grudging support. And I'm gonna scare you here. If the Republicans run anyone but Trump or DeSantis against Biden they're going to win, hands-down. Biden has a record as president, he's been excoriated by the right for four years, whereas someone without a track record, anybody without a track record, has an advantage.
Don't tell us to trust you, you and Biden. Don't tell us you've got this. Don't tell us about the women who are going to come out as a reaction to the reduction of the availability of abortion. Motivate us. Get us involved.
But no.
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